Land Down Under
by Mandolina Lightrobber
Summary: The world on the other side of life is not a friendly place and dragons haunt both realities alike.


**A/N:** Season 9 3/4 Round 6 Paleshipping – Amane Bakura x Kisara. So I somehow ended up with a pairing I suggested for this season's lineup. Still not sure how to go about that. xD

**Disclaimer: **Kazuki Takahashi and all associated companies are the rightful owners of the Yuugiou! franchise and I claim no association with any of them. No copyright infringement intended with this and no money is being made from this. Please support the creator by purchasing the official releases.

**Warnings:** none that I could think of except for some grotesque imagery.

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**Land Down Under**

Amane dreams of dragons. She dreams of them awakening from a slumber centuries long. And they're all coming after her. Fangs bared, leathery wings spread, tendrils of flame licking around their jaws, ready to burst forth and incinerate her where she stands. In her dreams, the dragons are evil. She confides in her brother Ryou, but he can't help her. He can't slip into her dreams to chase them away and when mother finds her waking up in tears for the sixth day in a row, she smacks him for filling her head with fairytales and scaring the nightmares upon her. She tries to tell their mother that it's not her brother's fault, but mother would have none of that. The big brother is guilty and they are forbidden to ever speak of dragons. Amane learns to keep her mouth shut after that. She is a fast learner.

The night before she dies in a carcrash, she dreams of the dragons again. They're closing in on her, sweeping over her and swooping low to worry at her clothes and loose strands of her hair, teasing her, playing with her before they swallow her whole or rip her apart – whichever choice they make first. They retreat before the final swoop and just as they're closing in, belching fire and charring her skin, she wakes with a choked gasp that only escapes her throat in the dream. In the realm of the waking, her body is frozen stiff and doesn't regain mobility for a few seconds. She can see that she's still in her room and that there are no dragons there, just the gentle shadows of the trees and the bright sunlight flooding in, but the dream haunts her, all too real.

It is a horrible mockery that on the other side of life she is greeted by a dragon. The solemn white creature, measures her up with calm blue eyes before drifting away into white wisps to reveal the slender form of a young girl underneath. Whatever Amane has learned of dragons, this is new.

"Who- who are you?" she asks the dragon-girl, but doesn't receive an answer. She, however, already knows who Amane is.

"Another one of his," she sighs, looking her over with those same cool blue eyes of a dragon.

"Another one of who?" Amane inquires, growing bolder by the moment, as it doesn't seem she's going to be attacked.

"I'm sorry," the strange girl says. "You won't stay here long. You bear his mark."

"Tell me! Tell me what you mean!" Amane demands in a high screech. She is getting uneasy, a strange coldness creeping up her spine. "What mark?"

The girl smiles sadly and the white wisps are back, weaving around her to form a dragon once more. "The darkness that killed you," her voice drifts disembodied in the air between them. "It's coming for you. It wants your soul like it wanted mine."

"But…" Amane makes to argue, but the dragon spits a white-hot ball of fire at her and she is aflame at once, her skin charring and peeling away. She can't even scream because her soul is rending itself into pieces and only the reflection in the dragon's eyes show her the monster she has turned into. For a moment, she has seen the darkness flicker between them, the face of it ghosting through the flames and she can't believe her eyes because it's the face of her brother. Twisted and maimed buy the fire and darkness, and ugly and scary like those of the dragons, but still familiar, sneering at her.

Betrayal stabs through her before her limbs harden into those of a little baby doll. She feels herself being lifted into somebody's arms and when she is turned face-up, she would scream if her little puppet mouth would permit her to. The monstrous woman coos something unintelligible and presses her to her chest and that's when Amane understands that it's her mother, twisted into the shape of a large bald doll, monstrous fumes oozing from her every joint. And brother, her sweet brother holds the strings. She would like to scream at him and kick at him, and ask him why, why, why…

Her mouth remains mute. Her strings remain pulled taut and sometimes she thinks she can see the eyes of the white dragon on her, pitying.


End file.
